Missa Sine Nomine

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's 'Missa Sine Nomine' set of parts.

In the course of his life, Johann Sebastian Bach assembled an extensive musical library that today can only be reconstructed in fragments. It reflects Bach's curiosity, starting in his youth and continuing into old age, to get to know compositions from different epochs and styles. The two complete Masses and six individual Palestrina metrics testify to Bach's interest in 16th-century compositions. In his Weimar years, Bach first used the works for a theoretical examination of the stile antico, his idiosyncrasies of vocal conduct and modal harmony. In his last years in Leipzig Bach plannedperformances of at least two of the fairs. In this context, he supplemented the works with instrumental parts and a Basso Continuo. The Masses by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, created by Bach, form an important document on the performance practice of works of the austere style in the eighteenth century.